The Leitchville Memorial Hall may be a far cry from the Sydney Opera House, but it rates highly as one of Eliza Hull’s top experiences.

The musician, author, podcaster, writer and disability advocate performed to a full audience at Leitchville on Tuesday, April 30 as part of Leitchville LIVE – Presents.

You may not have heard of Eliza before, but she is no stranger to the area, having been born in Kerang to parents Neville and Kim Hull (nee Bott), living her first 5 years on a farm at Cohuna and frequently visiting family in the area ever since, including her grandmother Joyce Hull.

39-year-old Eliza’s lifelong love for singing and music was recognised at around 5 years old, when she made her first public appearance at the Albury Wodonga Eisteddfod following the family’s move from Cohuna.

Singing in choirs and at school were always part of Eliza’s childhood and she knew from an early age that’s where her future lay. A Media and Communications degree enabled her to expand her career, writing for and appearing on the ABC, creating a podcast series ‘We’ve Got This’ about parenting with a disability and publishing a book by the same name, and authored a children’s book ‘Come Over to My House’ exploring the home lives of children and parents who are deaf or disabled. 

Eliza draws on her own experience with a disability. She was born with Charcot Marie Tooth (CMT), a neurological condition, though symptoms didn’t appear until she was 5 years old. On a day-to-day basis it affects her walking, she can’t regulate her body temperature, has muscle weakness in her hands and feet and has difficulty climbing stairs.

As much as Eliza lived life to her full potential, the disorder was impacting her career, and she withdrew from the performing that she loved.

“It was really hard to tour because stages are often inaccessible and it’s hard to get on and play and perform,” she said. “For anyone, it’s tiring, but when you have a disability, it can be even more so. I decided I wasn’t going to do shows.”

That changed when she received funding for a 5-week tour of England in 2023 and she fell in love with performing again.

“I think music has always kept calling my name. 

“I’ve done a full circle with realising that it is the thing that makes me the happiest, doing the song writing and performing.

“I think doing it all and finding a way forward where I can do many things, that’s okay.”

Eliza has embraced her disorder as part of her identity and is a proud, passionate and respected disability advocate. 

“For a long time, I didn’t really talk about it, I hid it as much as I could, but now, it’s become part of my identity.”

She wrote ‘Running Underwater’, a song about living with a disability, and performed it on ABC’s Q+A. The response proved she had made a difference, not only for herself, but for others living with a disability. 

“People with disability, people with chronic illness that had felt like they had pushed their identity away or felt like they couldn’t be themselves reached out and said this song really means so much to them. I think that was when I was like, actually, it’s really great to be yourself. And to be authentic and true to who you are means that other people can be who they are. And so, a lot of people with disability come to my shows. And I love that I get to talk to people after the show. And I guess we have an understanding together. And that’s felt really important.

“It’s not the only thing I sing about,” she says, pointing out she also sings about love, heartbreak, family and her own life stories, “but it’s definitely a part of me that I feel really proud of bringing to the forefront, because for a lot of time, disability has been really underrepresented in the music industry.”

The Leitchville LIVE – Presents performance attracted an audience of 101 people, including her father Neville and grandmother Joyce. Eliza captivated the audience with her soothing and spellbinding voice, performing songs from her five albums and ending with a moving rendition of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ with the audience joining in.

More about Eliza

Eliza has performed at the Sydney Opera House, Hamer Hall, the Melbourne Recital Centre and the Sydney Festival to name a few, runs songwriting workshops, and her songs appear in Australian television shows ‘The Heights’ and ‘And Then Something Changed’, and internationally in ‘Awkward’, ‘Teen Wolf’, and ‘Saving Hope’. She is currently writing music for a feature film.

You can listen to Eliza on the fourth Monday of each month as she joins David Astle on ABC Melbourne’s ‘Evenings’ to highlight disability arts and culture in Victoria.

Read more about Eliza at www.elizahull.com.

This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 9 May 2024.